Enhanced high efficiency frames for wireless communications

ABSTRACT

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and devices related to using enhanced high efficiency (HE) frames. A device may determine a high efficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field for a high efficiency (HE) frame, the HE-SIG-B field comprising a common information field and a user information field. The device may determine a data portion of the HE frame, wherein the data portion includes one or more resource units (RUs) with a size equal to a number of tones. The device may determine a first resource allocation subfield and a second resource allocation subfield of the common information field based at least in part on the number of tones. The device may cause to send the HE frame.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application62/579,534, filed Oct. 31, 2017, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference as if set forth in full.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wirelesscommunications and, more particularly, to enhanced high efficiency (HE)frames for wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

Communication devices in wireless systems are becoming widely prevalentand are increasingly requesting services from other communicationdevices. One of these services is the ability to allocate resources tomultiple devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a network diagram illustrating an example networkenvironment, according to some example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a frame format of a portion of a high efficiencysignal-B (HE-SIG-B) field.

FIG. 3 illustrates a frame format of a portion of a HE-SIG-B field, inaccordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4A depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for usingenhanced HE frames, in accordance with one or more example embodimentsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 4B depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for usingenhanced HE frames, in accordance with one or more example embodimentsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 depicts a functional diagram of an example communication stationthat may be suitable for use as a user device, in accordance with one ormore example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 depicts a block diagram of an example machine upon which any ofone or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, in accordancewith one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example embodiments described herein provide certain systems, methods,and devices for enhanced high efficiency (HE) frames for wirelesscommunications.

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustratespecific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practicethem. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical,process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodimentsmay be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments.Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalentsof those claims.

One or more devices (e.g., one or more user device(s) and/or accesspoints (APs)) may send and/or receive a frame that includes a highefficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field that precedes a data portion of theframe. The HE-SIG-B field may provide the orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) and/or downlink (DL) multi-user multiple input,multiple output (MU-MIMO) resource allocation (RA) information to allowthe station devices (STAs) to look up the corresponding resources to beused in the data portion of the frame.

The HE-SIG-B field may be sent to one or more STAs in a 160 MHz channel.The HE-SIG-B field may be separately encoded on each 20 MHz band of the160 MHz channel. For example, an HE-SIG-B field may include two contentchannels, each of which may be duplicated four times, each on a 20 MHzband. The encoding structure in one such 20 MHz band may include acommon information field, if present, followed by a user informationfield (also referred to as a user specific information field), whichtogether are referred to as the HE-SIG-B content channel. In the case ofa 160 MHz physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the 160 MHz PPDU mayinclude two HE-SIG-B content channels (e.g., an HE-SIG-B content channel1 and an HE-SIG-B content channel 2).

An HE-SIG-B common information field and a user information field of ahigh efficiency (HE) frame may be defined for a case with 160 MHz/80+80MHz with multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) populatedin one 996 tone resource unit (RU) and an orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) transmission populated in another 996 tone RU.

Two adjacent resource allocation subfields of the common informationfield of the HE-SIG-B field may point to the same user informationfields in a given content channel. Therefore, there may be a need to setthe content of the two adjacent resource allocation subfields pointingto a same user information field.

Example embodiments described herein provide certain systems, methods,and devices for enhanced HE frames, including, but not limited to, HEframes in the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, including the IEEE802.11ax standard.

In one or more embodiments, an enhanced HE frames system (e.g., one ormore user device(s) and/or access points (APs)) may send and/or receivea frame that includes an HE-SIG-B field that precedes a data portion ofthe frame. The HE-SIG-B field may provide the OFDMA and DL MU-MIMOresource allocation information to allow the STA that receives the frameto look up the corresponding resources to be used in the data portion ofthe frame.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may separatelyencode the HE-SIG-B field on each 20 MHz band of a 160 MHz channel. Theencoding structure in one such 20 MHz band may include a commoninformation field, if present, followed by a user information field,which together are referred to as the HE-SIG-B content channel.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinethe common information field of an HE-SIG-B content channel. The commoninformation field may contain information regarding the resource unitallocation (RA), such as the resource unit (RU) assignment to be used inthe data portion in the frequency domain, the RUs allocated for MU-MIMO,and/or the number of users in MU-MIMO allocations.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinethe user information field of an HE-SIG-B content channel. The userinformation field may include zero or more User Block fields followed bypadding (if present). Each User Block field may be made up of two userinformation fields that contain information for two STAs to decode theirpayloads. The last User Block field may contain information for one ortwo STAs depending on the number of users indicated by the RU Allocationfield and the Center 26-tone RU field.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinea 160 MHz physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU). The 160 MHz PPDU maycontain two HE-SIG-B content channels, each of which may be duplicatedfour times. For example, each of the two HE-SIG-B content channels maybe sent in a 20 MHz band and duplicated three additional times,resulting in the first content channel and its duplicates being sentover an 80 MHz band and the second content channel and its duplicatesbeing sent over another 80 MHz band.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinean HE-SIG-B content channel 1. The HE-SIG-B content channel 1 mayinclude a 32 bit common information field comprising four 8 bit RAsubfields. The HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may further include a userinformation field comprising four user information subfields. TheHE-SIG-B content channel 1 may be duplicated such that four instances ofHE-SIG-B content channel 1 are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160MHz channel. For example, HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may occupy the 20MHz frequency segment that is lowest in frequency and may be duplicatedon the 20 MHz frequency segments that are third, fifth, and seventhlowest in frequency.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinean HE-SIG-B content channel 2. The HE-SIG-B content channel 2 mayinclude a 32 bit common information field comprising four 8 bit RAsubfields. The HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may further include a userinformation field comprising four user information subfields. TheHE-SIG-B content channel 2 may be duplicated such that four instances ofHE-SIG-B content channel 2 are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160MHz channel. For example, HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may occupy the 20MHz frequency segment that is second lowest in frequency and may beduplicated on the 20 MHz frequency segments that are fourth, sixth, andeighth lowest in frequency.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinea first HE-SIG-B content channel of a 160 MHz PPDU that may carry acommon information field and a user information field corresponding toRUs signaled in the common information field. The common informationfield of HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may contain a first RU Allocationsubfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in a first range of subcarrierindices, followed by a second RU Allocation subfield for RUs withsubcarrier indices in a second range of subcarrier indices, followed bya third RU Allocation subfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in athird range of subcarrier indices, followed by a fourth RU Allocationsubfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in a fourth range of subcarrierindices. A range of indices refers to a subset of indices thatcorrespond to a subset of tones of an RU.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinea second HE-SIG-B content channel of a 160 MHz PPDU that may carry acommon information field and a user information field corresponding toRUs signaled in the common information field. The common informationfield of HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may contain a first RU Allocationsubfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in a first range of subcarrierindices, followed by a second RU Allocation subfield for RUs withsubcarrier indices in a second range of subcarrier indices, followed bya third RU Allocation subfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in athird range of subcarrier indices, followed by a fourth RU Allocationsubfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in a fourth range of subcarrierindices.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinea modified mapping of the two HE-SIG-B content channels. In the case ofan RU with a size that equals 996 tones, there may be an ambiguity inwhich two RU Allocation subfields (e.g., RA 1 and RA 3 for contentchannel 1 and RA 2 and RA 4 for content channel 2) point to the sameuser information fields. For example, each 8 bit RA in a 20 MHz channelindicates the user resource allocation structure in that 20 MHz channel.In a 160 MHz/80+80 MHz channel scenario, RA 1 and RA 3 point to the sameuser information field in content channel 1. In other words, RA 1 and RA3 include a resource allocation for 20 MHz channel 1 and for 20 MHzchannel 3. If the data is on an 80 MHz channel, then RA 1 and RA 3 willpoint to the same user information field because user informationsubfield (UF) 1 and UF 3 are included in the same 80 MHz channel.Similarly, RA 2 and RA 4 will point to the same user information fieldbecause UF 2 and UF 4 are included in the same 80 MHz channel.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinea 160 MHz/80+80 MHz channel with a first multi-user scheme (e.g.,MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA) populated in one 996 tone RU and a secondmulti-user scheme (e.g., MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA) populated in a second 996tone RU).

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinea modified mapping of the two HE-SIG-B content channels. The modifiedmapping of the two HE-SIG-B content channels may determine that thecontent that corresponds to RA 3 of HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may beset to 0 and the content that corresponds to RA 4 of HE-SIG-B contentchannel 2 may be set to 0. In such a scenario, the receiving STA maydetermine RA 1 and RA 3 for HE-SIG-B content channel 1 and RA 2 and RA 4for HE-SIG-B content channel 2.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinethat HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may include a 32 bit common informationfield comprising RA 1, RA 3=0, RA 5, and RA 7. The HE-SIG-B contentchannel 1 may further include user information field that includes UF 1,UF 5, and UF 7. The HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may be duplicated suchthat four copies of HE-SIG-B content channel 1 are sent over four 20 MHzbands of the 160 MHz channel. For example, HE-SIG-B content channel 1may occupy the 20 MHz frequency segment that is lowest in frequency andmay be duplicated on the 20 MHz frequency segments that are third,fifth, and seventh lowest in frequency.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinethat HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may include a 32 bit common informationfield comprising RA 2, RA 4=0, RA 6, and RA 8. The HE-SIG-B contentchannel 2 may further include a user information field that includes UF2, UF 6, and UF 8. The HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may be duplicated suchthat four copies of HE-SIG-B content channel 2 are sent over four 20 MHzbands of the 160 MHz channel. For example, HE-SIG-B content channel 2may occupy the 20 MHz frequency segment that is second lowest infrequency and may be duplicated on the 20 MHz frequency segments thatare fourth, sixth, and eighth lowest in frequency.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinethe first 8-bit RU Allocation subfield of the common information fieldof each HE-SIG-B content channel. For example, for each HE-SIG-B contentchannel, the first 8-bit RU Allocation subfield used to signal the996-tones RU may use entry 11010y2y1y0, wherein y2y1y0 may indicate thenumber of user information fields signaled in the corresponding contentchannel. Specifically, y2y1y0 is a binary vector with values that rangefrom 000-111 and is indicative of the number of user information fieldsin the HE-SIG-B content channel.

In one or more embodiments, the enhanced HE frames system may determinethe second 8-bit RU Allocation subfield of the common information fieldof each HE-SIG-B content channel. For example, for each HE-SIG-B contentchannel, the second 8-bit RU Allocation subfield used to signal that996-tones RU (e.g., RA 3 for content channel 1 and RA 4 for contentchannel 2) shall be set to 01110011. The entry 01110011 may indicate a996-tone RU with zero user information fields indicated in this RUAllocation subfield of the HE-SIG-B content channel.

The above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are notmeant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations,processes, etc., may exist, some of which are described in greaterdetail below. Example embodiments will now be described with referenceto the accompanying figures.

FIG. 1 depicts a network diagram illustrating an example networkenvironment, according to some example embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Wireless network 100 may include one or more user devices120 and one or more responding device(s) (e.g., AP 102), which maycommunicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 communication standards. Theuser device(s) 120 may be mobile devices that are non-stationary (e.g.,not having fixed locations) or may be stationary devices.

In some embodiments, the user devices 120 and the AP 102 may include oneor more computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram ofFIG. 5 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 6.

One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may beoperable by one or more user(s) 110. It should be noted that anyaddressable unit may be a station (STA). An STA may take on multipledistinct characteristics, each of which shape its function. For example,a single addressable unit might simultaneously be a portable STA, aquality-of-service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The oneor more illustrative user device(s) 120 and the AP(s) 102 may be STAs.The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 mayoperate as a personal basic service set (PBSS) control point/accesspoint (PCP/AP). The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/orAP(s) 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device including,but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile, e.g., a static,device. For example, user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may include, auser equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point (AP), a softwareenabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer (PC), a wearable wirelessdevice (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), a desktop computer,a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabook computer, a notebookcomputer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, ahandheld device, an internet of things (IoT) device, a sensor device, aPDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-boarddevice, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular phone functionalitieswith PDA device functionalities), a consumer device, a vehicular device,a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile ornon-portable device, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a PCS device,a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, amobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively smallcomputing device, a non-desktop computer, a “carry small live large”(CSLL) device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC (UMPC),a mobile internet device (MID), an “origami” device or computing device,a device that supports dynamically composable computing (DCC), acontext-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A/V device, aset-top-box (STB), a blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digitalvideo disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVDrecorder, a HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), abroadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, anaudio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat paneldisplay, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), adigital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier,a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera(DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, orthe like. Other devices, including smart devices such as lamps, climatecontrol, car components, household components, appliances, etc. may alsobe included in this list.

As used herein, the term “Internet of Things (IoT) device” is used torefer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has anaddressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, aBluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.)and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wiredor wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communicationinterface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an activecommunication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, atransmitter-receiver, or the like. An IoT device can have a particularset of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether theIoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available fortask execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, anenvironmental monitoring or recording function, a light-emittingfunction, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded inand/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU),microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to anIoT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example,IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators,toasters, ovens, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools,clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners,thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers,electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices areequipped with an addressable communications interface for communicatingwith the IoT network. IoT devices may also include cell phones, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the IoT network may be comprised ofa combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop ordesktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do nottypically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

The user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may also include mesh stationsin, for example, a mesh network, in accordance with one or more IEEE802.11 standards and/or 3GPP standards.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and/orAP(s) 102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one ormore communications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. Theuser device(s) 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly witheach other with or without the AP(s) 102. Any of the communicationsnetworks 130 and/or 135 may include, but are not limited to, any one ofa combination of different types of suitable communications networkssuch as, for example, broadcasting networks, cable networks, publicnetworks (e.g., the Internet), private networks, wireless networks,cellular networks, or any other suitable private and/or public networks.Further, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may have anysuitable communication range associated therewith and may include, forexample, global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitan areanetworks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs),or personal area networks (PANs). In addition, any of the communicationsnetworks 130 and/or 135 may include any type of medium over whichnetwork traffic may be carried including, but not limited to, coaxialcable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC)medium, microwave terrestrial transceivers, radio frequencycommunication mediums, white space communication mediums, ultra-highfrequency communication mediums, satellite communication mediums, or anycombination thereof.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and/orAP(s) 102 may include one or more communications antennas. The one ormore communications antennas may be any suitable type of antennascorresponding to the communications protocols used by the user device(s)120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126 and 128) and/or AP(s) 102. Somenon-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include Wi-Fiantennas, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.11 family of standards compatible antennas, directional antennas,non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patchantennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas,omnidirectional antennas, quasi-omnidirectional antennas, or the like.The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupledto a radio component to transmit and/or receive signals, such ascommunications signals to and/or from the user devices 120 and/or AP(s)102.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and/orAP(s) 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/ordirectional reception in conjunction with wirelessly communicating in awireless network. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124,126, 128) and/or AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform such directionaltransmission and/or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays(e.g., directional multi-gigabit (DMG) antenna arrays or the like). Eachof the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and/orreception in a particular respective direction or range of directions.Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and/orAP(s) 102 may be configured to perform any given directionaltransmission towards one or more defined transmit sectors. Any of theuser device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and/or AP(s) 102may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one ormore defined receive sectors.

Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) beamforming in a wireless networkmay be accomplished using radio frequency (RF) beamforming and/ordigital beamforming. In some embodiments, in performing a given MIMOtransmission, user devices 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may be configured to useall or a subset of its one or more communications antennas to performMIMO beamforming.

Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and/orAP(s) 102 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver fortransmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in thebandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communications protocolsutilized by any of the user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 tocommunicate with each other. The radio components may include hardwareand/or software to modulate and/or demodulate communications signalsaccording to pre-established transmission protocols. The radiocomponents may further have hardware and/or software instructions tocommunicate via one or more Wi-Fi and/or Wi-Fi direct protocols, asstandardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) 802.11 standards. In certain example embodiments, the radiocomponent, in cooperation with the communications antennas, may beconfigured to communicate via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11b, 802.11g,802.11n, 802.11ax), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax),or 60 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11ad). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fiprotocols may be used for communications between devices, such asBluetooth, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), Ultra-HighFrequency (UHF) (e.g. IEEE 802.11af, IEEE 802.22), white band frequency(e.g., white spaces), or other packetized radio communications. Theradio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable forcommunicating via the communications protocols. The radio component mayfurther include a low noise amplifier (LNA), additional signalamplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers,and digital baseband.

When an AP (e.g., AP 102 of FIG. 1) establishes communication with oneor more user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, and/or 128 ofFIG. 1), the AP 102 may communicate in a downlink direction and the userdevices 120 may communicate with the AP 102 in an uplink direction bysending frames in either direction. The user devices 120 may alsocommunicate peer-to-peer or directly with each other with or without theAP 102. The frames may be preceded by one or more preambles that may bepart of one or more headers. These preambles may be used to allow adevice (e.g., AP 102 and/or user devices 120) to detect a new incomingdata frame from another device. A preamble may be a signal used innetwork communications to synchronize transmission timing between two ormore devices (e.g., between the APs and user devices).

The IEEE 802.11 standard defines various frame types that devices mayuse for communications as well as managing and controlling the wirelesslink. These frame types may include data frames or signaling frames. Thesignaling frames may be divided into control frames and managementframes. Management frames enable devices to establish and maintaincommunications. Some examples of management frames may include, but arenot limited to, fine timing measurement frame, authentication frames,association request frame, association response frame, beacon frame,etc. Control frames may assist in the delivery of data frames betweendevices. Some examples of control frames may include, but are notlimited to, request to send frame, clear to send frame, acknowledgmentframe, etc.

Typically, control frames have limited and simpler structures thanmanagement frames. Meaning that baseband processing may process controlframes using a simpler procedure, resulting in faster processing.However, control frames are less flexible than management frames.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and/orAP 102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one or morecommunications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. Any of thecommunications networks 130 and/or 135 may include, but not are limitedto, any one of a combination of different types of suitablecommunications networks such as, for example, broadcasting networks,cable networks, public networks (e.g., the Internet), private networks,wireless networks, cellular networks, or any other suitable privateand/or public networks. Further, any of the communications networks 130and/or 135 may have any suitable communication range associatedtherewith and may include, for example, global networks (e.g., theInternet), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs),local area networks (LANs), or personal area networks (PANs). Inaddition, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may includeany type of medium over which network traffic may be carried including,but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber, ahybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceivers,radio frequency communication mediums, white space communicationmediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums, satellitecommunication mediums, or any combination thereof.

In one embodiment, and with reference to FIG. 1, when an AP (e.g., AP(s)102) establishes communication with one or more user devices 120 (e.g.,user devices 124, 126, and/or 128), the AP 102 may communicate in adownlink direction and the user devices 120 may communicate with the AP102 in an uplink direction by sending frames in either direction. Insome examples, the AP 102 may send an HE frame 104 to the user devices120 in the downlink direction. Data frames sent between the AP(s) 102and the user devices 120 may be preceded by one or more preambles thatmay be part of one or more headers. These preambles may be used to allowa device (e.g., AP(s) 102 and/or user devices 120) to detect a newincoming data frame from another device.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 2 illustrates a frame format of a portion 200 of a HE-SIG-B frame.

In one or more embodiments, the portion 200 of an HE frame may includean HE-SIG-B field 202 of the HE frame that precedes a data portion 204of the frame. The HE-SIG-B field 202 may provide the OFDMA and DLMU-MIMO resource allocation information to allow the STAs to look up thecorresponding resources to be used in the data portion 204 of the frame.

The HE-SIG-B field 202 may be separately encoded on each 20 MHz band ofa 160 MHz channel. The encoding structure in one such 20 MHz band mayinclude a common information field 206, if present, followed by a userinformation field 208, which together are referred to as the HE-SIG-Bcontent channel.

The common information field 206 of an HE-SIG-B content channel maycontain information regarding the resource unit allocation (e.g., RA 1210), such as the resource unit (RU) assignment to be used in the dataportion 204 in the frequency domain, the RUs allocated for MU-MIMO,and/or the number of users in MU-MIMO allocations.

The user information field 208 of an HE-SIG-B content channel mayinclude zero or more User Block fields followed by padding (if present).Each User Block field may be made up of two user information fields thatcontain information for two STAs to decode their payloads. The last UserBlock field may contain information for one or two STAs depending on thenumber of users indicated by the RU Allocation field and the Center26-tone RU field.

In the case of a 160 MHz physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the160 MHz PPDU may contain two HE-SIG-B content channels, each of whichmay be duplicated four times, as shown in FIG. 2. For example, FIG. 2illustrates the mapping of the two HE-SIG-B content channels and theirduplication in a 160 MHz PPDU.

HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may include a 32 bit common information field206 comprising RA 1 210, RA 3 212, RA 5 214, and RA 7 216. HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 1 may further include user information field 208 thatincludes UF 1 218, UF 3 220, UF 5 222, and UF 7 224. The HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 1 may be duplicated such that four copies of HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 1 are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160 MHz channel(e.g., 20 MHz Channel 1, 20 MHz Channel 3, 20 MHz Channel 5, and 20 MHzChannel 7). In other words, HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may occupy the 20MHz frequency segment that is lowest in frequency and may be duplicatedon the 20 MHz frequency segments that are third, fifth, and seventhlowest in frequency.

HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may include a 32 bit common information field206 comprising RA 2, RA 4, RA 6, and RA 8. HE-SIG-B content channel 2may further include user information field 208 that includes UF 2, UF 4,UF 6, and UF 8. The HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may be duplicated suchthat four copies of HE-SIG-B content channel 2 are sent over four 20 MHzbands of the 160 MHz channel (e.g., 20 MHz Channel 2, 20 MHz Channel 4,20 MHz Channel 6, and 20 MHz Channel 8). In other words, HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 2 may occupy the 20 MHz frequency segment that is secondlowest in frequency and may be duplicated on the 20 MHz frequencysegments that are fourth, sixth, and eighth lowest in frequency.

The first HE-SIG-B content channel of the 160 MHz PPDU may carry acommon information field 206 and a user information field 208corresponding to RUs signaled in the common information field 206. Thecommon information field 206 of HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may contain afirst RU Allocation subfield RA 1 210 for RUs with subcarrier indices ina first range of subcarrier indices (e.g., [−1012:−771] or overlappingwith [−1012:−771] if the RU is larger than 242 subcarriers), followed bya second RU Allocation subfield RA 3 212 for RUs with subcarrier indicesin a second range of subcarrier indices (e.g., [−495:−254] oroverlapping with [−495:−254] if the RU is larger than 242 subcarriers),followed by a third RU Allocation subfield RA 5 214 for RUs withsubcarrier indices in a third range of subcarrier indices (e.g.,[12:253] or overlapping with [12:253] if the RU is larger than 242subcarriers), followed by a fourth RU Allocation subfield RA 7 216 forRUs with subcarrier indices in a fourth range of subcarrier indices(e.g., [529:770] or overlapping with [529:770] if the RU is larger than242 subcarriers). The common information field 206 of HE-SIG-B contentchannel 1 may further be followed by 1 bit Center 26-tone RU subfield toindicate the presence of the user information field 208 corresponding tothe center 26-tone RU that spans subcarriers [−528:−516, −508:−496].

The second HE-SIG-B content channel of the 160 MHz PPDU may carry acommon information field 206 and a user information field 208corresponding to RUs signaled in the common information field 206. Thecommon information field 206 of HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may contain afirst RU Allocation subfield RA 2 for RUs with subcarrier indices in afirst range of subcarrier indices (e.g., [−770:−529] or overlapping with[−770:−529] if the RU is larger than 242 subcarriers), followed by asecond RU Allocation subfield RA 4 for RUs with subcarrier indices in asecond range of subcarrier indices (e.g., [−253:−12] or overlapping with[−253:−12] if the RU is larger than 242 subcarriers), followed by athird RU Allocation subfield RA 6 for RUs with subcarrier indices in athird range of subcarrier indices (e.g., [254:495] or overlapping with[254:495] if the RU is larger than 242 subcarriers), followed by afourth RU Allocation subfield RA 8 for RUs with subcarrier indices in afourth range of subcarrier indices (e.g., [771:1012] or overlapping with[771:1012] if the RU is larger than 242 subcarriers). The commoninformation field 206 of HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may further befollowed by 1 bit Center 26-tone RU subfield to indicate the presence ofthe user information field 208 corresponding to the center 26-tone RUthat spans subcarriers [496:508, 516:528].

Note that in the case of an RU with a size that equals 996 tones (e.g.,in the scenario of a 160 MHz/80+80 MHz channel with a first multi-userscheme (e.g., MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA) populated in one 996 tone RU and asecond multi-user scheme (e.g., MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA) populated in asecond 996 tone RU, there may be an ambiguity in which two RU Allocationsubfields (e.g., RA 1 and RA 3 for content channel 1 and RA 2 and RA 4for content channel 2) point to the same user information subfields. Inother words, two adjacent resource allocation subfields may point to thesame user information subfields in a given channel. Therefore, there maybe a need to set the content of the two adjacent resource allocationsubfields in such a scenario.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 3 illustrates a frame format of a portion 300 of an HE frame, inaccordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

In one or more embodiments, the portion 300 of an HE frame may includean HE-SIG-B field 302 of the HE frame that precedes a data portion 304of the frame. The HE-SIG-B field 302 may provide the OFDMA and DLMU-MIMO resource allocation information to allow the STAs to look up thecorresponding resources to be used in the data portion 304 of the frame.

The HE-SIG-B field 302 may be separately encoded on each 20 MHz band ofa 160 MHz channel. The encoding structure in one such 20 MHz band mayinclude a common information field 306, if present, followed by a userinformation field 308, which together are referred to as the HE-SIG-Bcontent channel.

The common information field 306 of an HE-SIG-B content channel maycontain information regarding the resource unit allocation (e.g., RA 1310), such as the resource unit (RU) assignment to be used in the dataportion 304 in the frequency domain, the RUs allocated for MU-MIMO,and/or the number of users in MU-MIMO allocations.

The user information field 308 of an HE-SIG-B content channel mayinclude zero or more User Block fields followed by padding (if present).Each User Block field may be made up of two user information fields thatcontain information for two STAs to decode their payloads. The last UserBlock field may contain information for one or two STAs depending on thenumber of users indicated by the RU Allocation field and the Center26-tone RU field.

As discussed above with respect to FIG. 2, in the case of an RU with asize that equals 996 tones (e.g., in the scenario of a 160 MHz/80+80 MHzchannel with a first multi-user scheme (e.g., MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA)populated in one 996 tone RU and a second multi-user scheme (e.g.,MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA) populated in a second 996 tone RU), there may bean ambiguity in which two RU Allocation subfields (e.g., RA 1 and RA 3for content channel 1 and RA 2 and RA 4 for content channel 2) point tothe same user information fields. To address this ambiguity, a modifiedmapping of the two HE-SIG-B content channels may be used. Specifically,the content that corresponds to RA 3 of HE-SIG-B content channel 1 maybe set to 0 and the content that corresponds to RA 4 of HE-SIG-B contentchannel 2 may be set to 0. In such a scenario, the receiving STA mayparse RA 1 and RA 3 for HE-SIG-B content channel 1 and RA 2 and RA 4 forHE-SIG-B content channel 2.

In the case of a 160 MHz physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the160 MHz PPDU may contain two HE-SIG-B content channels, each of whichmay be duplicated four times, as shown in FIG. 3. For example, FIG. 3illustrates the modified mapping of the two HE-SIG-B content channelsand their duplication in a 160 MHz PPDU.

HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may include a 32 bit common information field306 comprising RA 1 310, RA 3=0 312, RA 5 314, and RA 7 316. HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 1 may further include user information field 308 thatincludes UF 1 318, UF 5 320, and UF 7 322. The HE-SIG-B content channel1 may be duplicated such that four copies of HE-SIG-B content channel 1are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160 MHz channel (e.g., 20 MHzChannel 1, 20 MHz Channel 3, 20 MHz Channel 5, and 20 MHz Channel 7). Inother words, HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may occupy the 20 MHz frequencysegment that is lowest in frequency and may be duplicated on the 20 MHzfrequency segments that are third, fifth, and seventh lowest infrequency.

HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may include a 32 bit common information field306 comprising RA 2, RA 4=0, RA 6, and RA 8. HE-SIG-B content channel 2may further include user information field 308 that includes UF 2, UF 6,and UF 8. The HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may be duplicated such thatfour copies of HE-SIG-B content channel 2 are sent over four 20 MHzbands of the 160 MHz channel (e.g., 20 MHz Channel 2, 20 MHz Channel 4,20 MHz Channel 6, and 20 MHz Channel 8). In other words, HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 2 may occupy the 20 MHz frequency segment that is secondlowest in frequency and may be duplicated on the 20 MHz frequencysegments that are fourth, sixth, and eighth lowest in frequency.

As noted above, if the RU size equals 996 tones, for each HE-SIG-Bcontent channel (e.g., for HE-SIG-B content channel 1 and for HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 2), a modified mapping of the two HE-SIG-B contentchannels may be used. For example, for each HE-SIG-B content channel,the first 8-bit RU Allocation subfield used to signal that 996-tones RU(e.g., RA 1 310 of HE-SIG-B content channel 1 and RA 2 of HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 2) may use entry 11010y2y1y0, wherein y2y1y0 mayindicate the number of user information fields signaled in thecorresponding content channel. Specifically, y2y1y0 is a binary vectorwith values that range from 000-111 and is indicative of the number ofuser information fields in the HE-SIG-B content channel. Furthermore,for each HE-SIG-B content channel, the second 8-bit RU Allocationsubfield used to signal that 996-tones RU (e.g., RA 3 312 for contentchannel 1 and RA 4 for content channel 2) shall be set to 01110011. Theentry 01110011 may indicate a 996-tone RU with zero user informationfields 308 indicated in this RU Allocation subfield of the HE-SIG-Bcontent channel. Note that the binary vector y2y1y0 indicates2²×y2+2¹×y1+y0+1 STAs multiplexed the RU.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 4A depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process 400 for usingenhanced HE frames, in accordance with one or more example embodimentsof the present disclosure.

At block 402, one or more processors of a device (e.g., AP 102 ofFIG. 1) may determine a high efficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field for ahigh efficiency (HE) frame, the HE-SIG-B field comprising a commoninformation field and a user information field. The HE-SIG-B field maycomprise a first HE-SIG-B content channel and a second HE-SIG-B contentchannel. The common information field may be a first common informationfield that corresponds to the first HE-SIG-B content channel. The devicemay further comprise a transceiver configured to transmit and receivewireless signals. The device may further comprise one or more antennascoupled to the transceiver.

At block 404, the one or more processors of the device may determine adata portion of the HE frame, wherein the data portion includes one ormore resource units (RUs) with a size equal to a number of tones. Thedata portion may comprise an orthogonal frequency-division multipleaccess (OFDMA) 996 tone RU and a multi-user multiple input, multipleoutput (MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU.

At block 406, the one or more processors of the device may determine afirst resource allocation subfield and a second resource allocationsubfield of the common information field based at least in part on thenumber of tones. The first resource allocation subfield may be based atleast in part on a number of devices that multiplexed the RU. The devicemay determine a third resource allocation subfield and a fourth resourceallocation subfield of a second common information field thatcorresponds to the second HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein the thirdresource allocation subfield and the fourth resource allocation subfieldare based at least in part on the number of tones.

At block 408, the one or more processors of the device may cause thedevice to send the HE frame. The HE frame may be sent in a 160 MHzchannel, wherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU may be sent in a first 80 MHzsubchannel and the MU-MIMO 996 tone RU may be sent in a second 80 MHzsubchannel.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 4B depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process 450 for usingenhanced HE frames, in accordance with one or more example embodimentsof the present disclosure.

At block 452, one or more processors of a device (e.g., user device 120of FIG. 1) may identify a high efficiency (HE) frame received from afirst device, the HE frame comprising a high efficiency signal-B(HE-SIG-B) field and a data portion of the HE frame. The HE-SIG-B fieldmay comprise a first HE-SIG-B content channel and a second HE-SIG-Bcontent channel. The device may further comprise a transceiverconfigured to transmit and receive wireless signals. The device mayfurther comprise one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

At block 454, one or more processors of the device may determine a firstresource allocation subfield and a second resource allocation subfieldof a common information field of the HE-SIG-B field. The first resourceallocation subfield and the second resource allocation subfield maycorrespond to the first HE-SIG-B content channel. The first resourceallocation subfield may indicate a number of user information fields inthe first HE-SIG-B content channel. The common information field is afirst common information field that corresponds to the first HE-SIG-Bcontent channel. The first resource allocation subfield may include afirst 8 bit value that indicates a 996 tone RU. The first resourceallocation subfield may be based at least in part on a number of devicesthat multiplexed the RU.

At block 456, one or more processors of the device may determine thatthe second resource allocation subfield indicates a 996 tone RU withzero user information fields. The device may determine a third resourceallocation subfield and a fourth resource allocation subfield of asecond common information field that corresponds to the second HE-SIG-Bcontent channel, wherein the third resource allocation subfield and thefourth resource allocation subfield are based at least in part on thenumber of tones.

At block 458, one or more processors of the device may determine thedata portion of the HE frame based at least in part on the firstresource allocation subfield and the second resource allocationsubfield. The data portion may comprise an orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) 996 tone RU and a multi-user multiple input,multiple output (MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU. The HE frame may be sent in a 160MHz channel, wherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU may be sent in a first 80 MHzsubchannel and the MU-MIMO 996 tone RU may be sent in a second 80 MHzsubchannel.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 5 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station500 in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, FIG. 5illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station thatmay be suitable for use as an AP (e.g., AP 102 of FIG. 1) or a userdevice (e.g., user device(s) 120 of FIG. 1) in accordance with someembodiments. The communication station 500 may also be suitable for useas a handheld device, a mobile device, a cellular telephone, asmartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer,a wearable computer device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR)subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or otherpersonal communication system (PCS) device.

The communication station 500 may include communications circuitry 502and a transceiver 510 for transmitting and receiving signals to and fromother communication stations using one or more antennas 501. Thetransceiver 510 may be a device comprising both a transmitter and areceiver that are combined and share common circuitry (e.g.,communication circuitry 502). The communication circuitry 502 mayinclude amplifiers, filters, mixers, analog to digital and/or digital toanalog converters. The transceiver 510 may transmit and receive analogor digital signals. The transceiver 510 may allow reception of signalsduring transmission periods. This mode is known as full-duplex, and mayrequire the transmitter and receiver to operate on different frequenciesto minimize interference between the transmitted signal and the receivedsignal. The transceiver 510 may operate in a half-duplex mode, where thetransceiver 510 may transmit or receive signals in one direction at atime.

The communications circuitry 502 may include circuitry that can operatethe physical layer (PHY) communications and/or media access control(MAC) communications for controlling access to the wireless medium,and/or any other communications layers for transmitting and receivingsignals. The communication station 500 may also include processingcircuitry 506 and memory 508 arranged to perform the operationsdescribed herein. In some embodiments, the communications circuitry 502and the processing circuitry 506 may be configured to perform operationsdetailed in FIGS. 2, 3, 4A, and 4B.

In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 502may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames orpackets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communicationscircuitry 502 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. Thecommunications circuitry 502 may also include circuitry formodulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering,amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 506 ofthe communication station 500 may include one or more processors. Inother embodiments, two or more antennas 501 may be coupled to thecommunications circuitry 502 arranged for sending and receiving signals.The memory 508 may store information for configuring the processingcircuitry 506 to perform operations for configuring and transmittingmessage frames and performing the various operations described herein.The memory 508 may include any type of memory, including non-transitorymemory, for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer). For example, the memory 508 may include a computer-readablestorage device, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM),magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devicesand other storage devices and media.

In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may be part of aportable wireless communication device, such as a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wirelesscommunication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, asmartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, adigital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., aheart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computerdevice, or another device that may receive and/or transmit informationwirelessly.

In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one ormore antennas 501. The antennas 501 may include one or more directionalor omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas,monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas,or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. Insome embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna withmultiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture maybe considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input,multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectivelyseparated for spatial diversity and the different channelcharacteristics that may result between each of the antennas and theantennas of a transmitting station.

In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one ormore of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multipleantennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, andother mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen includinga touch screen.

Although the communication station 500 is illustrated as having severalseparate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements maybe combined and may be implemented by combinations ofsoftware-configured elements, such as processing elements includingdigital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. Forexample, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) andcombinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing atleast the functions described herein. In some embodiments, thefunctional elements of the communication station 500 may refer to one ormore processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination ofhardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also beimplemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storagedevice, which may be read and executed by at least one processor toperform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storagedevice may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storinginformation in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Forexample, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory(ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, opticalstorage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices andmedia. In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may includeone or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored ona computer-readable storage device memory.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 600 orsystem upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g.,methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments,the machine 600 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected(e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, themachine 600 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a clientmachine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example,the machine 600 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (orother distributed) network environments. The machine 600 may be apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device,a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machinecapable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. Further,while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloudcomputing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer clusterconfigurations.

Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or anumber of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangibleentities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operationswhen operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardwaremay be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g.,hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurableexecution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computerreadable medium containing instructions where the instructions configurethe execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation.The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units ora loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units arecommunicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium when the deviceis operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member ofmore than one module. For example, under operation, the execution unitsmay be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a firstmodule at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set ofinstructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

The machine (e.g., computer system) 600 may include a hardware processor602 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit(GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a mainmemory 604 and a static memory 606, some or all of which may communicatewith each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 608. The machine 600 mayfurther include a power management device 632, a graphics display device610, an alphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), and a userinterface (UI) navigation device 614 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, thegraphics display device 610, alphanumeric input device 612, and UInavigation device 614 may be a touch screen display. The machine 600 mayadditionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 616, a signalgeneration device 618 (e.g., a speaker), an Enhanced HE frame device619, a network interface device/transceiver 620 coupled to antenna(s)630, and one or more sensors 628, such as a global positioning system(GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine600 may include an output controller 634, such as a serial (e.g.,universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g.,infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection tocommunicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., aprinter, a card reader, etc.)).

The storage device 616 may include a machine readable medium 622 onwhich is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 624(e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of thetechniques or functions described herein. The instructions 624 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 604,within the static memory 606, or within the hardware processor 602during execution thereof by the machine 600. In an example, one or anycombination of the hardware processor 602, the main memory 604, thestatic memory 606, or the storage device 616 may constitutemachine-readable media.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may send and/or receive a frame thatincludes an HE-SIG-B field that precedes a data portion of the frame.The HE-SIG-B field may provide the OFDMA and DL MU-MIMO resourceallocation information to allow the STA that receives the frame to lookup the corresponding resources to be used in the data portion of theframe.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may separately encode the HE-SIG-Bfield on each 20 MHz band of a 160 MHz channel. The encoding structurein one such 20 MHz band may include a common information field, ifpresent, followed by a user information field, which together arereferred to as the HE-SIG-B content channel.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine the common informationfield of an HE-SIG-B content channel. The common information field maycontain information regarding the resource unit allocation (RA), such asthe resource unit (RU) assignment to be used in the data portion in thefrequency domain, the RUs allocated for MU-MIMO, and/or the number ofusers in MU-MIMO allocations.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine the user informationfield of an HE-SIG-B content channel. The user information field mayinclude zero or more User Block fields followed by padding (if present).Each User Block field may be made up of two user information fields thatcontain information for two STAs to decode their payloads. The last UserBlock field may contain information for one or two STAs depending on thenumber of users indicated by the RU Allocation field and the Center26-tone RU field.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine a 160 MHz physical layerprotocol data unit (PPDU). The 160 MHz PPDU may contain two HE-SIG-Bcontent channels, each of which may be duplicated four times. Forexample, each of the two HE-SIG-B content channels may be sent in a 20MHz band and duplicated three additional times, resulting in the firstcontent channel and its duplicates being sent over an 80 MHz band andthe second content channel and its duplicates being sent over another 80MHz band.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine an HE-SIG-B contentchannel 1. The HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may include a 32 bit commoninformation field comprising four 8 bit RA subfields. The HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 1 may further include a user information fieldcomprising four user information subfields. The HE-SIG-B content channel1 may be duplicated such that four instances of HE-SIG-B content channel1 are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160 MHz channel. For example,HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may occupy the 20 MHz frequency segment thatis lowest in frequency and may be duplicated on the 20 MHz frequencysegments that are third, fifth, and seventh lowest in frequency.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine an HE-SIG-B contentchannel 2. The HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may include a 32 bit commoninformation field comprising four 8 bit RA subfields. The HE-SIG-Bcontent channel 2 may further include a user information fieldcomprising four user information subfields. The HE-SIG-B content channel2 may be duplicated such that four instances of HE-SIG-B content channel2 are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160 MHz channel. For example,HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may occupy the 20 MHz frequency segment thatis second lowest in frequency and may be duplicated on the 20 MHzfrequency segments that are fourth, sixth, and eighth lowest infrequency.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine a first HE-SIG-B contentchannel of a 160 MHz PPDU that may carry a common information field anda user information field corresponding to RUs signaled in the commoninformation field. The common information field of HE-SIG-B contentchannel 1 may contain a first RU Allocation subfield for RUs withsubcarrier indices in a first range of subcarrier indices, followed by asecond RU Allocation subfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in asecond range of subcarrier indices, followed by a third RU Allocationsubfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in a third range of subcarrierindices, followed by a fourth RU Allocation subfield for RUs withsubcarrier indices in a fourth range of subcarrier indices. A range ofindices refers to a subset of indices that correspond to a subset oftones of an RU.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine a second HE-SIG-B contentchannel of a 160 MHz PPDU that may carry a common information field anda user information field corresponding to RUs signaled in the commoninformation field. The common information field of HE-SIG-B contentchannel 2 may contain a first RU Allocation subfield for RUs withsubcarrier indices in a first range of subcarrier indices, followed by asecond RU Allocation subfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in asecond range of subcarrier indices, followed by a third RU Allocationsubfield for RUs with subcarrier indices in a third range of subcarrierindices, followed by a fourth RU Allocation subfield for RUs withsubcarrier indices in a fourth range of subcarrier indices.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine a modified mapping of thetwo HE-SIG-B content channels. In the case of an RU with a size thatequals 996 tones, there may be an ambiguity in which two RU Allocationsubfields (e.g., RA 1 and RA 3 for content channel 1 and RA 2 and RA 4for content channel 2) point to the same user information fields. Forexample, each 8 bit RA in a 20 MHz channel indicates the user resourceallocation structure in that 20 MHz channel. In a 160 MHz/80+80 MHzchannel scenario, RA 1 and RA 3 point to the same user information fieldin content channel 1. In other words, RA 1 and RA 3 include a resourceallocation for 20 MHz channel 1 and for 20 MHz channel 3. If the data ison an 80 MHz channel, then RA 1 and RA 3 will point to the same userinformation field because user information subfield (UF) 1 and UF 3 areincluded in the same 80 MHz channel. Similarly, RA 2 and RA 4 will pointto the same user information field because UF 2 and UF 4 are included inthe same 80 MHz channel.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine a 160 MHz/80+80 MHzchannel with a first multi-user scheme (e.g., MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA)populated in one 996 tone RU and a second multi-user scheme (e.g.,MU-MIMO and/or OFDMA) populated in a second 996 tone RU).

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine a modified mapping of thetwo HE-SIG-B content channels. The modified mapping of the two HE-SIG-Bcontent channels may determine that the content that corresponds to RA 3of HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may be set to 0 and the content thatcorresponds to RA 4 of HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may be set to 0. Insuch a scenario, the receiving STA may determine RA 1 and RA 3 forHE-SIG-B content channel 1 and RA 2 and RA 4 for HE-SIG-B contentchannel 2.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine that HE-SIG-B contentchannel 1 may include a 32 bit common information field comprising RA 1,RA 3=0, RA 5, and RA 7. The HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may furtherinclude user information field that includes UF 1, UF 5, and UF 7. TheHE-SIG-B content channel 1 may be duplicated such that four copies ofHE-SIG-B content channel 1 are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160MHz channel. For example, HE-SIG-B content channel 1 may occupy the 20MHz frequency segment that is lowest in frequency and may be duplicatedon the 20 MHz frequency segments that are third, fifth, and seventhlowest in frequency.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine that HE-SIG-B contentchannel 2 may include a 32 bit common information field comprising RA 2,RA 4=0, RA 6, and RA 8. The HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may furtherinclude user information field that includes UF 2, UF 6, and UF 8. TheHE-SIG-B content channel 2 may be duplicated such that four copies ofHE-SIG-B content channel 2 are sent over four 20 MHz bands of the 160MHz channel. For example, HE-SIG-B content channel 2 may occupy the 20MHz frequency segment that is second lowest in frequency and may beduplicated on the 20 MHz frequency segments that are fourth, sixth, andeighth lowest in frequency.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine the first 8-bit RUAllocation subfield of the common information field of each HE-SIG-Bcontent channel. For example, for each HE-SIG-B content channel, thefirst 8-bit RU Allocation subfield used to signal the 996-tones RU mayuse entry 11010y2y1y0, wherein y2y1y0 may indicate the number of userinformation fields signaled in the corresponding content channel.Specifically, y2y1y0 is a binary vector with values that range from000-111 and is indicative of the number of user information fields inthe HE-SIG-B content channel.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may determine the second 8-bit RUAllocation subfield of the common information field of each HE-SIG-Bcontent channel. For example, for each HE-SIG-B content channel, thesecond 8-bit RU Allocation subfield used to signal that 996-tones RU(e.g., RA 3 for content channel 1 and RA 4 for content channel 2) shallbe set to 01110011. The entry 01110011 may indicate a 996-tone RU withzero user information fields indicated in this RU Allocation subfield ofthe HE-SIG-B content channel.

The Enhanced HE frame device 619 may be configured to perform theoperations detailed in FIGS. 2, 3, 4A, and 4B. It is understood that theabove are only a subset of what the Enhanced HE frame device 619 may beconfigured to perform and that other functions included throughout thisdisclosure may also be performed by the Enhanced HE frame device 619.

While the machine-readable medium 622 is illustrated as a single medium,the term “machine-readable medium” may include a single medium ormultiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers) configured to store the one or moreinstructions 624.

Various embodiments may be implemented fully or partially in softwareand/or firmware. This software and/or firmware may take the form ofinstructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium. Those instructions may then be read and executed by oneor more processors to enable performance of the operations describedherein. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as but notlimited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executablecode, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readablemedium may include any tangible non-transitory medium for storinginformation in a form readable by one or more computers, such as but notlimited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magneticdisk storage media; optical storage media; a flash memory, etc.

The term “machine-readable medium” may include any medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine 600 and that cause the machine 600 to perform any one ormore of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable ofstoring, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associatedwith such instructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examplesmay include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. In anexample, a massed machine-readable medium includes a machine-readablemedium with a plurality of particles having resting mass. Specificexamples of massed machine-readable media may include non-volatilememory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electricallyprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), or electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices;magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks;magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

The instructions 624 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 626 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device/transceiver 620 utilizing any one of a number oftransfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP),transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP),hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communicationsnetworks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephonenetworks (e.g., cellular networks), plain old telephone (POTS) networks,wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards,and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, thenetwork interface device/transceiver 620 may include one or morephysical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or moreantennas to connect to the communications network 626. In an example,the network interface device/transceiver 620 may include a plurality ofantennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-inputmultiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), ormultiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term “transmissionmedium” shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capableof storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by themachine 600 and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible media to facilitate communication of such software. Theoperations and processes described and shown above may be carried out orperformed in any suitable order as desired in various implementations.Additionally, in certain implementations, at least a portion of theoperations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore, in certainimplementations, less than or more than the operations described may beperformed.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments. The terms “computing device,” “userdevice,” “communication station,” “station,” “handheld device,” “mobiledevice,” “wireless device” and “user equipment” (UE) as used hereinrefers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone,a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptopcomputer, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, anaccess point, a printer, a point of sale device, an access terminal, orother personal communication system (PCS) device. The device may beeither mobile or stationary.

As used within this document, the term “communicate” is intended toinclude transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving.This may be particularly useful in claims when describing theorganization of data that is being transmitted by one device andreceived by another, but only the functionality of one of those devicesis required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchangeof data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive duringthe exchange) may be described as “communicating,” when only thefunctionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term“communicating” as used herein with respect to a wireless communicationsignal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/orreceiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wirelesscommunication unit, which is capable of communicating a wirelesscommunication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit thewireless communication signal to at least one other wirelesscommunication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receivethe wireless communication signal from at least one other wirelesscommunication unit.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinaladjectives “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., to describe a commonobject, merely indicates that different instances of like objects arebeing referred to and are not intended to imply that the objects sodescribed must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, inranking, or in any other manner.

The term “access point” (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. Anaccess point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station,an evolved node B (eNodeB), or some other similar terminology known inthe art. An access terminal may also be called a mobile station, userequipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similarterminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein generallypertain to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wirelessnetworks that operate in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11standards.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices andsystems, for example, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, amobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tabletcomputer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, apersonal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, anon-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehiculardevice, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumerdevice, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communicationstation, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP),a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device,an audio device, an audio-video (A/V) device, a wired or wirelessnetwork, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN),a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal areanetwork (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-wayradio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communicationsystems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, apersonal communication system (PCS) device, a PDA device whichincorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portableglobal positioning system (GPS) device, a device which incorporates aGPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFIDelement or chip, a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transceiver ordevice, a single input multiple output (SIMO) transceiver or device, amultiple input single output (MISO) transceiver or device, a singleinput single output (SISO) transceiver or device, a device having one ormore internal antennas and/or external antennas, digital video broadcast(DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard radio devices or systems, awired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a smartphone, a wirelessapplication protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types ofwireless communication signals and/or systems following one or morewireless communication protocols, for example, radio frequency (RF),infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM(OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access(TDMA), extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS),extended GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA(WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA,multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi-tone (DMT), Bluetooth,global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra-wideband(UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G,3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3GPP, long termevolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution(EDGE), or the like. Other embodiments may be used in various otherdevices, systems, and/or networks.

The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

Example 1 may include a device, the device comprising processingcircuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to:determine a high efficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field for a highefficiency (HE) frame, the HE-SIG-B field comprising a commoninformation field and a user information field; determine a data portionof the HE frame, wherein the data portion includes one or more resourceunits (RUs) with a size equal to a number of tones; determine a firstresource allocation subfield and a second resource allocation subfieldof the common information field based at least in part on the number oftones; and cause to send the HE frame.

Example 2 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the data portion comprises an orthogonalfrequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) 996 tone RU and a multi-usermultiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU.

Example 3 may include the device of example 2 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the HE frame is sent in a 160 MHz channel, and whereinthe OFDMA 996 tone RU is sent in a first 80 MHz subchannel and theMU-MIMO 996 tone RU is sent in a second 80 MHz subchannel.

Example 4 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the first resource allocation subfield includes a first8 bit value that indicates a 996 tone RU, and wherein the secondresource allocation subfield includes a second 8 bit value thatindicates a 996 tone RU with zero user information fields.

Example 5 may include the device of example 4 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the first resource allocation subfield is based at leastin part on a number of devices that multiplexed the RU.

Example 6 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the HE-SIG-B field comprises a first HE-SIG-B contentchannel and a second HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein the commoninformation field is a first common information field that correspondsto the first HE-SIG-B content channel, and wherein the processingcircuitry is further configured to: determine a third resourceallocation subfield and a fourth resource allocation subfield of asecond common information field that corresponds to the second HE-SIG-Bcontent channel, wherein the third resource allocation subfield and thefourth resource allocation subfield are based at least in part on thenumber of tones.

Example 7 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit andreceive wireless signals.

Example 8 may include the device of example 7 and/or some other exampleherein, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver.

Example 9 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions which when executed by one or moreprocessors result in performing operations comprising: identifying ahigh efficiency (HE) frame received from a first device, the HE framecomprising a high efficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field and a dataportion of the HE frame; determining a first resource allocationsubfield and a second resource allocation subfield of a commoninformation field of the HE-SIG-B field; determining that the secondresource allocation subfield indicates a 996 tone RU with zero userinformation fields; and determining the data portion of the HE framebased at least in part on the first resource allocation subfield and thesecond resource allocation subfield.

Example 10 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 9 and/or some other example herein, wherein the HE-SIG-B fieldcomprises a first HE-SIG-B content channel and a second HE-SIG-B contentchannel, wherein the first resource allocation subfield and the secondresource allocation subfield correspond to the first HE-SIG-B contentchannel, and wherein the first resource allocation subfield indicates anumber of user information fields in the first HE-SIG-B content channel.

Example 11 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the commoninformation field is a first common information field that correspondsto the first HE-SIG-B content channel, and wherein the operationsfurther comprise: determining a third resource allocation subfield and afourth resource allocation subfield of a second common information fieldthat corresponds to the second HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein thethird resource allocation subfield and the fourth resource allocationsubfield are based at least in part on a number of tones in the RU.

Example 12 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 9 and/or some other example herein, wherein the data portioncomprises an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) 996tone RU and a multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) 996tone RU.

Example 13 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 12 and/or some other example herein, wherein the HE frame issent in a 160 MHz channel, and wherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU is sent ina first 80 MHz subchannel and the MU-MIMO 996 tone RU is sent in asecond 80 MHz subchannel.

Example 14 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 9 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first resourceallocation subfield includes a first 8 bit value that indicates a 996tone RU, and wherein the first resource allocation subfield is based atleast in part on a number of devices that multiplexed the RU.

Example 15 may include a method comprising: determining, by one or moreprocessors of a device, a high efficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field fora high efficiency (HE) frame, the HE-SIG-B field comprising a commoninformation field and a user information field; determining, by the oneor more processors, a data portion of the HE frame, wherein the dataportion includes one or more resource units (RUs) with a size equal to anumber of tones; determining, by the one or more processors, a firstresource allocation subfield and a second resource allocation subfieldof the common information field based at least in part on the number oftones; and causing to send, by the one or more processors, the HE frame.

Example 16 may include the method of example 15 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the data portion comprises an orthogonalfrequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) 996 tone RU and a multi-usermultiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU.

Example 17 may include the method of example 16 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the HE frame is sent in a 160 MHz channel, andwherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU is sent in a first 80 MHz subchannel andthe MU-MIMO 996 tone RU is sent in a second 80 MHz subchannel.

Example 18 may include the method of example 15 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first resource allocation subfield includesa first 8 bit value that indicates a 996 tone RU and wherein the secondresource allocation subfield includes a second 8 bit value thatindicates a 996 tone RU with zero user information fields.

Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first resource allocation subfield is basedat least in part on a number of devices that multiplexed the RU.

Example 20 may include the method of example 15 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the HE-SIG-B field comprises a first HE-SIG-Bcontent channel and a second HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein thecommon information field is a first common information field thatcorresponds to the first HE-SIG-B content channel, and wherein themethod further comprises: determining, by the one or more processors, athird resource allocation subfield and a fourth resource allocationsubfield of a second common information field that corresponds to thesecond HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein the third resource allocationsubfield and the fourth resource allocation subfield are based at leastin part on the number of tones.

Example 21 may include an apparatus comprising means for: determining ahigh efficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field for a high efficiency (HE)frame, the HE-SIG-B field comprising a common information field and auser information field; determining a data portion of the HE frame,wherein the data portion includes one or more resource units (RUs) witha size equal to a number of tones; determining a first resourceallocation subfield and a second resource allocation subfield of thecommon information field based at least in part on the number of tones;and causing to send the HE frame.

Example 22 may include the apparatus of example 21 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the data portion comprises an orthogonalfrequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) 996 tone RU and a multi-usermultiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU.

Example 23 may include the apparatus of example 22 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the HE frame is sent in a 160 MHz channel, andwherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU is sent in a first 80 MHz subchannel andthe MU-MIMO 996 tone RU is sent in a second 80 MHz subchannel.

Example 24 may include the apparatus of example 21 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first resource allocation subfield includesa first 8 bit value that indicates a 996 tone RU and wherein the secondresource allocation subfield includes a second 8 bit value thatindicates a 996 tone RU with zero user information fields.

Example 25 may include the apparatus of example 24 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first resource allocation subfield is basedat least in part on a number of devices that multiplexed the RU.

Example 26 may include the apparatus of example 21 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the HE-SIG-B field comprises a first HE-SIG-Bcontent channel and a second HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein thecommon information field is a first common information field thatcorresponds to the first HE-SIG-B content channel, and wherein theapparatus further comprises means for: determining a third resourceallocation subfield and a fourth resource allocation subfield of asecond common information field that corresponds to the second HE-SIG-Bcontent channel, wherein the third resource allocation subfield and thefourth resource allocation subfield are based at least in part on thenumber of tones.

Example 27 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 28 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 29 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-26, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 30 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-26, or portions thereof.

Example 31 may include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example 32 may include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 33 may include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Embodiments according to the invention are in particular disclosed inthe attached claims directed to a method, a storage medium, a device anda computer program product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claimcategory, e.g. method, can be claimed in another claim category, e.g.system, as well. The dependencies or references back in the attachedclaims are chosen for formal reasons only. However any subject matterresulting from a deliberate reference back to any previous claims (inparticular multiple dependencies) can be claimed as well, so that anycombination of claims and the features thereof are disclosed and can beclaimed regardless of the dependencies chosen in the attached claims.The subject-matter which can be claimed comprises not only thecombinations of features as set out in the attached claims but also anyother combination of features in the claims, wherein each featurementioned in the claims can be combined with any other feature orcombination of other features in the claims. Furthermore, any of theembodiments and features described or depicted herein can be claimed ina separate claim and/or in any combination with any embodiment orfeature described or depicted herein or with any of the features of theattached claims.

The foregoing description of one or more implementations providesillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed.Modifications and variations are possible in light of the aboveteachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference toblock and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/orcomputer program products according to various implementations. It willbe understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flowdiagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executableprogram instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams andflow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the orderpresented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, accordingto some implementations.

These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto aspecial-purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particularmachine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer,processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create meansfor implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be storedin a computer-readable storage media or memory that may direct acomputer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function ina particular manner, such that the instructions stored in thecomputer-readable storage media produce an article of manufactureincluding instruction means that implement one or more functionsspecified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certainimplementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising acomputer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program codeor program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readableprogram code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functionsspecified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer programinstructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements orsteps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus toproduce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions thatexecute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elementsor steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams supportcombinations of means for performing the specified functions,combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functionsand program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose, hardware-based computersystems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, orcombinations of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainimplementations could include, while other implementations do notinclude, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, suchconditional language is not generally intended to imply that features,elements, and/or operations are in any way required for one or moreimplementations or that one or more implementations necessarily includelogic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whetherthese features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to beperformed in any particular implementation.

Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forthherein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented inthe foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it isto be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to thespecific implementations disclosed and that modifications and otherimplementations are intended to be included within the scope of theappended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they areused in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device, the device comprising processingcircuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to:determine a high efficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field for a highefficiency (HE) frame, the HE-SIG-B field comprising a commoninformation field and a user information field; determine a data portionof the HE frame, wherein the data portion includes one or more resourceunits (RUs) with a size equal to a number of tones; determine a firstresource allocation subfield and a second resource allocation subfieldof the common information field based at least in part on the number oftones; and cause to send the HE frame.
 2. The device of claim 1, whereinthe data portion comprises an orthogonal frequency-division multipleaccess (OFDMA) 996 tone RU and a multi-user multiple input, multipleoutput (MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU.
 3. The device of claim 2, wherein the HEframe is sent in a 160 MHz channel, and wherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU issent in a first 80 MHz subchannel and the MU-MIMO 996 tone RU is sent ina second 80 MHz subchannel.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein the firstresource allocation subfield includes a first 8 bit value that indicatesa 996 tone RU, and wherein the second resource allocation subfieldincludes a second 8 bit value that indicates a 996 tone RU with zerouser information fields.
 5. The device of claim 4, wherein the firstresource allocation subfield is based at least in part on a number ofdevices that multiplexed the RU.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein theHE-SIG-B field comprises a first HE-SIG-B content channel and a secondHE-SIG-B content channel, wherein the common information field is afirst common information field that corresponds to the first HE-SIG-Bcontent channel, and wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to: determine a third resource allocation subfield and afourth resource allocation subfield of a second common information fieldthat corresponds to the second HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein thethird resource allocation subfield and the fourth resource allocationsubfield are based at least in part on the number of tones.
 7. Thedevice of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver configured totransmit and receive wireless signals.
 8. The device of claim 7, furthercomprising one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.
 9. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executableinstructions which when executed by one or more processors result inperforming operations comprising: identifying a high efficiency (HE)frame received from a first device, the HE frame comprising a highefficiency signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field and a data portion of the HE frame;determining a first resource allocation subfield and a second resourceallocation subfield of a common information field of the HE-SIG-B field;determining that the second resource allocation subfield indicates a 996tone RU with zero user information fields; and determining the dataportion of the HE frame based at least in part on the first resourceallocation subfield and the second resource allocation subfield.
 10. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the HE-SIG-Bfield comprises a first HE-SIG-B content channel and a second HE-SIG-Bcontent channel, wherein the first resource allocation subfield and thesecond resource allocation subfield correspond to the first HE-SIG-Bcontent channel, and wherein the first resource allocation subfieldindicates a number of user information fields in the first HE-SIG-Bcontent channel.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 10, wherein the common information field is a first commoninformation field that corresponds to the first HE-SIG-B contentchannel, and wherein the operations further comprise: determining athird resource allocation subfield and a fourth resource allocationsubfield of a second common information field that corresponds to thesecond HE-SIG-B content channel, wherein the third resource allocationsubfield and the fourth resource allocation subfield are based at leastin part on a number of tones in the RU.
 12. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the data portion comprisesan orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) 996 tone RU anda multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU. 13.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the HEframe is sent in a 160 MHz channel, and wherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU issent in a first 80 MHz subchannel and the MU-MIMO 996 tone RU is sent ina second 80 MHz subchannel.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 9, wherein the first resource allocation subfieldincludes a first 8 bit value that indicates a 996 tone RU, and whereinthe first resource allocation subfield is based at least in part on anumber of devices that multiplexed the RU.
 15. A method, comprising:determining, by one or more processors of a device, a high efficiencysignal-B (HE-SIG-B) field for a high efficiency (HE) frame, the HE-SIG-Bfield comprising a common information field and a user informationfield; determining, by the one or more processors, a data portion of theHE frame, wherein the data portion includes one or more resource units(RUs) with a size equal to a number of tones; determining, by the one ormore processors, a first resource allocation subfield and a secondresource allocation subfield of the common information field based atleast in part on the number of tones; and causing to send, by the one ormore processors, the HE frame.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein thedata portion comprises an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access(OFDMA) 996 tone RU and a multi-user multiple input, multiple output(MU-MIMO) 996 tone RU.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the HE frameis sent in a 160 MHz channel, and wherein the OFDMA 996 tone RU is sentin a first 80 MHz subchannel and the MU-MIMO 996 tone RU is sent in asecond 80 MHz subchannel.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the firstresource allocation subfield includes a first 8 bit value that indicatesa 996 tone RU and wherein the second resource allocation subfieldincludes a second 8 bit value that indicates a 996 tone RU with zerouser information fields.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the firstresource allocation subfield is based at least in part on a number ofdevices that multiplexed the RU.
 20. The method of claim 15, wherein theHE-SIG-B field comprises a first HE-SIG-B content channel and a secondHE-SIG-B content channel, wherein the common information field is afirst common information field that corresponds to the first HE-SIG-Bcontent channel, and wherein the method further comprises: determining,by the one or more processors, a third resource allocation subfield anda fourth resource allocation subfield of a second common informationfield that corresponds to the second HE-SIG-B content channel, whereinthe third resource allocation subfield and the fourth resourceallocation subfield are based at least in part on the number of tones.